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The school was immediately plunged into special measures and the school is now subject to regular monitoring by Ofsted inspectors as it is one which is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education.

The first of those monitoring reports have now been released, with Ofsted praising school leaders for putting together a "fit for purpose" action plan in a bid to turn the school's fortunes around.

However, question marks still remain over the quality of teaching and outcomes for pupils.

The monitoring report, which was carried out in May and published yesterday, explains how the quality of teaching, learning and assessment observed during the inspection "remains inconsistent".

It went to say "slower progress has been sustained over the last six months compared with progress in other areas". In addition, the school has yet to draw up a method for monitoring the progress of the most able pupils, resulting in slower progress, and that progress is less good for disadvantaged pupils in some year groups.

Inspectors have said that "leaders are aware" that more work is needed to start to accelerate pupils’ progress overall and, on a more positive note, that bosses "have been successful" at improving the effectiveness of safeguarding within school.

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As reported, despite having previously been rated as good by educational regulators Ofsted in 2013, the academy in Cambridge Road is now rated as inadequate in four of the six categories rated, and requires improvement in two.

But with the academy seemingly on track to be removed from special measures, principal, Mark Eames, says he is "delighted" that Ofsted have acknowledged the hard work and improvements made to date.

He said: “I’m pleased inspectors have concluded we are taking effective action.

“We recognise that, before the next monitoring visit, there remains work to be done, but this report gives us encouragement that we are on the right track.

“The most pleasing aspect is that the inspection team agrees that safeguarding issues have been addressed and the report recognises that the deputy principal with responsibility for safeguarding has taken a highly methodical approach to bringing about significant changes.”